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Andrea Anderson · Called to Serve

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  Hello and welcome. Today on Call to Serve you will
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  hear from Andrea Anderson. Andrea was ordained in 2019.
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  She has served as deputy minister over the Public Service
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  Commission in Nova Scotia and is currently senior pastor at East
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  Preston United Baptist Church. Andrea talks about her ability
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  to minister in the workplace and describes experiencing racism in
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  both seminary and the public service.
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  You know, I say it all the time, if God can change me, he can
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  change anybody. I went to church when I was a
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  young person, so we always went on special occasions, you know,
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  Christmas and Easter, those types of things.
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  But then I had a grandmother who was a Deacon in the church.
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  She was an organist there. You know, she would drag us
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  along and she took sick and she said so you could play the
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  piano. I was like, I have just, I just
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  know a few notes, whatever, right?
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  So she kind of made space for me.
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  However, the lure of the world and all the things that the
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  world has to offer young people threw me away from the church.
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  So I was away from the church till my 40s.
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  You may know I was previously married and my husband left and
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  so I became a single mom for many years.
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  But my current husband, Eugene Anderson, who was a friend of
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  mine and I don't know how it all materialized.
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  I'll just say he's my husband now.
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  Anyways, his mom invited us to come for dinner.
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  But the condition of the dinner was I must go to church.
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  And so I thought, well, OK, you know, I'll go to church.
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  And it was, it was inspiring. And so then I got to tell you it
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  was like I had new ears to hear God's word.
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  It was like it was fresh. It like I never heard it in a
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  way that I never heard it before.
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  And I can tell you that the Holy Spirit began to speak to the
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  depths of me. God just revealed to me the
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  state of my sinfulness. I mean, I had such a spirit I
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  call the spiritual breakdown. And so it was there at Emmanuel
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  Baptist Church that my journey began and that I received my
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  call from God. I always had a desire to share
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  God's word because even when I was, you know, younger, I used
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  to do skits, Bible skits for the kids.
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  And so as I was at Emmanuel Baptist Church, that gift that
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  God had given me to do skits and all those types of things, I
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  started doing them again. And so I started doing Christian
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  comedy. You know, I'd love to laugh and
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  have lots of fun. And everybody in church seemed
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  to be so serious. And I was thinking, that's the
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  part that kind of turned me off. Why is everybody so serious?
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  Like, this is not attractive to me, right?
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  And so I created this character by the name of Roxy Fox.
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  Roxy would have been the old Andrea.
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  Roxy was, you know, unsaved, very unsavory.
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  I started showing what church was like from the eyes of
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  somebody who wasn't in church. And so I did that for, Oh my
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  goodness, I have to say at least five years maybe.
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  It was effective. It was very effective, you know,
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  and so I had a lot of invitations to go do Roxy Fox
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  and stuff like that. I also just had a heart for
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  God's Word. And so I joined the women of
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  influence. This was a group of women where
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  I found support where I, you know, I was in the church, but I
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  was still struggling. I was still struggling with
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  addictions. And so it was this through this
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  women's ministry that they didn't judge me, they loved me
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  and God was able to to bring me out of that right.
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  And so I'm so grateful for women's ministries.
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  And so joint the intercessory prayer ministry was also
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  involved in altar ministry. Then I started doing Alpha
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  ministry and my desire to share God's word just kept, you know,
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  growing and growing and growing and my hunger for it kept
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  growing. And I just was chasing.
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  I say I was a God chaser. I was chasing after him.
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  Maybe in 2012, somewhere around there, Pastor Leonard Anderson
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  had invited me to speak. And I remember I'll never forget
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  the story as long as I live. I was in the mall shopping and
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  he said, hey, I'm, I'm not feeling well.
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  I'm not going to be able to preach tomorrow.
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  I was just wondering if you might be able to share a word
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  with the congregation. Of course, I said yes, got off
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  the phone. No, I got to call him back,
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  right. And that was on a Friday night.
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  And he was asking me to speak on a Sunday morning because I had
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  done a workshop that weekend on, I think it was on love.
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  And he said, well, don't take some of the material you got
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  from the workshop that you did. So that was the first time that
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  I actually stepped into the pulpit to share a word.
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  The moment I stepped in, I just knew that I knew this is where
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  I'm supposed to be. And then other people started
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  kind of noticing the gifts. And I remember having a
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  conversation with Vasilan and he said, do you feel there's a call
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  on your life? And I was thinking, I do, but I
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  didn't want to say anything to anybody because, you know, it's
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  a huge responsibility. I, I kept reading, remembering
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  the scripts, you know, the accountability and, and much
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  greater accountability to those who preach and teach the gospel.
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  Hey, I don't need that. And by this time, you know, I
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  was starting to progress a little bit in my career in the
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  secular world, right? So I had, I did a degree, a
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  human resources and marketing degree and wasn't successful.
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  But what I realized is that it was because I wasn't in
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  relationship with God, those doors weren't opening.
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  So seven years later, imagine this when I finally turned my
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  life over to Christ that he starts to open.
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  God starts to open these doors. And then as I was reading
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  Scripture, I really heard God speak to me one day, Andrea, go
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  study my word. Go study my word.
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  And still I didn't move. I'm kind of stubborn like that.
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  But then all these signs kept coming my way, you know, like
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  pastor. And it was having a conversation
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  with me. Other folks were having
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  conversations. And you know, that confirmation
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  can come from various avenues, right?
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  But the final thing that did it for me was I was at, I think it
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  was a women's thing. I can't remember exactly, but
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  someone had walked up to me and said the Spirit of God told me
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  to give you this book. And I still have it on my
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  bookshelf back here. And the title of the book is
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  called Of God. So it was kind of like God just
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  kind of took the book and banged me on the head.
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  Like, what more do you want? I went to pass and I said, I I
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  need it. I do want to study the word, but
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  I don't want to do the laid program.
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  I want to go to seminary. I want to go to Acadia Divinity
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  College. And folks will not surprise.
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  Like, you know, my family was not surprised.
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  But the thing that really struck my heart was when my mom was
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  living with me and she said to me, she said, you know what,
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  Andrea, one day you're going to make an amazing pastor.
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  And she didn't get to live to see me graduate.
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  She was at a women's session that we had one Saturday.
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  And she she went out the spirit, but I thought she fainted.
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  Then I recognized in that moment, there was a move of God
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  happening in that sanctuary. And women were being ministered
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  to. Women were being set free.
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  People were given the gift of, of speaking in another language.
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  And my mom was like, Oh my gosh, this is crazy.
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  What is this? And so she ran out the
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  sanctuary. I think a lot of folks thought
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  maybe I was going to quit my job and do ministry full time.
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  But but that wasn't the case because God had also spoken to
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  me about that, right? You're going to be able to do
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  ministry in a way that's going to be different because you're
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  not going to be dependent on a church to provide for you.
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  I didn't really know anybody who was doing Co vocational or bi
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  vocational ministry. But I think that was part of
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  God's plan because I saw my workplace as also my mission
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  field, as my place of ministry. And so working full time in
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  government, going to ADC part time, it was a struggle.
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  It was a sacrifice. You know, when everybody else is
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  going off to do things, I'm, I'm here, you know, every evening
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  doing school work. And I was an HR consultant at
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  the time. So those weren't 9 to 5 jobs,
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  you know, folks needed access to you at any time.
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  So it was a challenge. There was times when I had to
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  maybe utilize my vacation so that I could do the school work
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  or there were times when I had to go have a had a conversation
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  with a professor to say, listen, I'm struggling to meet this
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  deadline. And, and you know, they were so
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  obliging. Look, I'll never tell you I had
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  a conversation with Doctor Robbins.
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  I was experiencing burn ups. I had this last paper and I
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  remember I was literally crying. I was like, I can't do this.
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  And I was distressed and I and I ended up getting shingles from
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  and everything else. And I remember reaching out to
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  her and just saying, I'm so stressed, though.
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  She said, Andrea, do you think anybody's going to ask you all
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  your grace? She said, my advice to you is do
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  the paper, stop stressing yourself out about it, man.
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  When she said that, that was like someone gave me a free
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  ticket, like get out of jail free card.
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  That's what it felt like and I needed to hear that.
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  And so it what made it a little more challenge for me.
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  Also because I was part time so I wasn't on on site a lot.
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  I did a lot of the online courses and it was a it was a
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  little challenging to connect. There's always the old boys club
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  no matter where you go, right? It was so funny when I did the
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  class with Doctor Wooden and I talked about how you all know
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  Moses, that he married a sister. She was a brown sister, you
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  know, and everyone's kind of like in the class.
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  I'm like, oh, no, she didn't go there, right.
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  They never really want to talk about the the race thing.
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  And so I would always try to interject my culture into the
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  dialogue. And I'll never forget another
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  experience I had at Acadia where I was preaching and this
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  gentleman who is white came up to me afterwards.
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  He said, why are you trying to preach like a black woman?
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  And I said, well, my brother, I am a sister.
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  I am a black woman. I'm preaching by by who I am.
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  I said, you do know that black people come in different shapes,
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  sizes and colors. There are lots of questions,
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  lots of conversations about racism, you know, and there were
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  a lot of stupid comments that people made to me.
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  So I would extend grace and take the opportunity to educate.
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  And I remember saying to Anderson, because I love to
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  worship, Like, I'm like, oh, you know what I mean?
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  And everybody's kind of like, oh, Jesus.
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  And I'm like, Oh my gosh, am I going to survive here?
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  Right? How am I going to make it?
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  So there were days I just sucked it off and, you know, did what I
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  had to do, right. One day in Chapel, the worship
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  had stopped and I was like, oh, Hallelujah, I thank you, Jesus.
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  And everybody's kind of like looking at me.
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  And I remember Doctor Gardner come and he said, wow, you sure
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  shift the atmosphere in there today, You know, and I'm all
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  about if the presence of God is here because we need the word,
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  but we need God's presence. We need the presence of the Holy
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  Spirit, which touches us. And sometimes you need more than
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  just the Word. You need his presence.
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  But as I look at Acadia, there's lots more work that needs to be
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  done. And this is just my honest
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  opinion. Like there's there's students
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  coming out of there that are going to go to churches and
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  preach, and we're going to miss the bout about what it means to
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  preach the gospel to someone who comes from a different ethnicity
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  there. Black people are sitting in the
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  congregation, but they're not serving communion.
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  You know, they're not serving communion in those churches.
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  They're not sitting on those leadership tables in those
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  churches. They're just present in those
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  churches. My prayer and my hope is that
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  Acadia Divinity College will produce and release students
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  into ministry who understand the importance of making space and
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  place for everybody regardless of ethnicity and racial
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  backgrounds. I was appointed the Deputy
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  Minister for the Province of Nova Scotia over the over the
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  Public Service Commission. So I would have been the first
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  Black woman and 1st Black person to ever hold that position of
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  commissioner. So in the role as Commissioner
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  of the Public Service Commission, you have oversight
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  and governance for all HR policies and practices for all
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  of government, for all the other various departments, and you
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  hold the authority for legislation, acts and
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  regulations that govern all of that.
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  So, you know, the Public Service Commission sets the standard for
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  the pace for, you know, equity and diversity and inclusion, all
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  of those things. I'm just going to be straight
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  up, I experience a lot of racism.
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  My faith was challenged at the at the highest level, you know,
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  like I was honest with them about the system that I worked
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  in and about the system that, you know, others had to try to
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  overcome the barriers that existed Da, da, da, da, da, you
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  know, and the list goes on. Some of the things that I
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  learned at ADC, for example, leading a healthy church, I took
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  some of those principles and started applying them in the
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  workplace. One of the leaders that I had in
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  the workplace, he said, you know what, I can't help but notice?
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  He said there's been a tremendous growth in your
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  ability to lead them in. My workplace became a place
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  where people would walk in and knock in my office and say, hey,
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  commissioner, can you pray for me?
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  I remember busting up a session one day and they were talking
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  about self help. And I would say, hey, ho, hold,
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  hold it. How are we talking about self
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  help? We're leading the only one who
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  can help us, which is God himself.
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  So, you know, I got jacked up on so many occasions, you know, Oh
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  my goodness, like you can't talk about that in the workplace.
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  I said, well, I'm going to talk about it and I did.
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  I didn't make any bones about it.
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  So everybody in government knew who I was.
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  They knew I was first and foremost, I was Andrea Anderson,
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  a woman of God. But at the same time I was
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  graceful because really there was an opportunity to show
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  people who who Jesus was at Emmanuel Baptist Church.
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  They invited me to be be the assistant pastor of leadership
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  and administration. I knew I was called to a
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  preaching ministry. I knew I was called the pastor
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  and so I decided to do ordination because that's what
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  God showed me. It's like Doctor Lennon would
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  always say, would you let a doctor operate on you if they
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  didn't have their credentials, you know, would you let a
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  dentist in your mouth? And I was like, I never forgot
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  that. And I remember going to
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  examining council, nervous as can be, you know, they asked me,
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  well, the journey and I said, God had used me to minister to a
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  young lady who was a Muslim who in the second visit gave her
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  heart to Jesus Christ. And then they said, what do you
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  think about local church autonomy?
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  And I said, do we actually have local church autonomy?
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  And they were like, what? What do you mean?
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  I said, the mere fact that I'm sitting here tells me that I
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  don't have local church autonomy, that I got to come
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  before you to get stamped, signed, sealed and delivered,
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  right. So then, you know, there's some
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  folks that are on. I just want to ask you a dumb
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  question, but it was a good experience.
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  It challenged me to think about what do I think about being
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  Baptist? What do I think about local
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  church autonomy? And I think we need to be
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  challenged at the board. We really do.
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  You know, when I think about who's coming into the pulpits,
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  if I'm sitting on the board of ministers standards, I'm going
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  to ask some key questions about. So how do you minister to
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  somebody in your church who's of a different culture?
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  What is your perspective about women stepping up and what do
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  you think about women taking on leadership roles in your church?
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  I have some, you know, I have different questions.
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  A lot of people want to ask biblical questions, but I that's
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  great. We need to ask biblical
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  questions, but let's ask some practical questions because you
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  can sound good and give me all kinds of great biblical answers.
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  That's awesome. Tell me how you're going to live
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  that out. When I was ordained at Emmanuel
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  Baptist Church, I had over 40 of my work colleagues who showed up
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  that day, over 40 of them. That was the impact that got it
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  open the door for me to have in government.
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  And so that would have been exposure for them to church,
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  like for some of them the first time being exposed to church,
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  right? So it was pretty powerful.
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  I'm like, who would have ever imagined this little nobody from
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  Ponic Rd. Windsor Plains small black
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  community. You know, you should never grow
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  up to be anything more than if you can get a grade 12, then you
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  should be thankful kind of thing.
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  And then in 2022, E Preston United Baptist Church has need
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  of some assistance, you know, and I I like to be an Eddie
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  Manuel. That's comfortable.
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  Eddie Manuel. I knew Pastor Lennon.
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  I knew who he was like we just had a really good solid
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  relationship. So I pray, I say, God, this is
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  where I'm supposed to go, Like give me a piece about it, right?
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  And so God said, yes, go. And he said, and I said, well,
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  what, what do I do? And all I heard God say to me,
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  you know, when I was praying about it is I just want you to
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  go and love the people. If you love the people,
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  everything else will work itself out.
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  And so he said, the people are broken.
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  They've been through so many seasons and they just need to
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  know that a shepherd cares. That's OK.
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  So I go, and there's so much work to do.
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  We have issues with the building that is flooding.
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  Like it's just so much stuff. And they said, well, we want you
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  to stay. And I'm thinking, I don't know
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  if I can stay. Like I want to go back to my
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  place of comfort, right? You know, my place of comfort.
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  Everything's good there. You know, it's a new building.
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  You all need a new church. I don't know if I'm up for a new
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  building, a new church. You know, that's a lot of work.
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  I can't do this and still stay in my government role.
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  It's just, you know, and what a powerful testament to those who
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  are in government. When I left to do ministry full
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  time, I was confident that God said no, no, it's time to go.
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  So I gave up that big promotion. I gave up my deputy's pension.
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  I gave it all up for my call and my love for God and my love for
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  the people of God. And I went off to East Preston
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  United Baptist Church where I am now as their senior pastor.
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  We've had quite a journey to say the least.
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  And I can say that I, I see God's hand, the partnerships
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  we've been able to create in the community with the daycare, and
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  then there's all kinds of different potentials and I see
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  people opening their eyes up to the possibilities, right?
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  You know, like, hey, as a church, how are we going to give
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  back to the community? This church owns property.
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  Can we partner? Can housing is an issue?
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  Can we help with the housing issue?
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  So lots of work to do, but I'm, I'm up for the challenge.
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  There was a Halifax regional of the, the association for
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  Halifax. We came together at life branch,
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  right? They asked me to say something.
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  I said, well, this thank you for this.
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  But one of the things I said to them, I said, it's lonely being
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  a woman in ministry. It is very lonely.
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  I said, you know, I look around this room and I see, you know,
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  male pastors in this room. And I can tell you that not one
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  of you have reached out to me to invite me to have a conversation
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  about ministry, have never invited me to your tables.
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  You haven't even asked how I'm making out of ministry.
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  So I was very honest and very frank about that.
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  There's this divide between men and women.
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  How do we crossover? Because everybody's like, you
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  know, just a sexual thing. OK, OK, can we just stop that?
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  It's a ministry thing. If you got a sexual thing, then
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  you got a different issue. OK, let's just deal with that,
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  right? But how do we, how do we engage
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  men and women in ministry in a different way so that we can
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  learn from one another? I think there's learnings that
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  can happen that aren't happening.
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  I know for certain that Emmanuel Baptist Church, there were folks
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  that, you know, if I was preaching, probably wouldn't
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  come to church on that Sunday. There will always be this
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  banter, you know, and, you know, remember when Renee became the
• 18:42
  first woman to be the executive minister, right?
• 18:44
  It was interesting for me to hear the, shall we say,
• 18:48
  discussion. I'll be polite and call it
• 18:50
  discussion to hear the different perspectives and the hard stance
• 18:56
  on her election to that office and their perception of why a
• 19:01
  woman can't leave. Well, I wanted to get up and
• 19:04
  take that microphone and say a few things, but I'm just kind of
• 19:07
  new to Oasis and CBAC. So, you know, like, and it just
• 19:11
  blows me away that folks still learn that mindset that God
• 19:15
  can't use women in leadership. It'll be interesting, you know,
• 19:19
  when those who have a hard stance, if they're one of their
• 19:22
  daughters, is called to ministry.
• 19:24
  I can honestly say I have not had any female role models in
• 19:27
  ministry. Primarily.
• 19:29
  It was all men. Maybe maybe I didn't see myself
• 19:33
  in ministry because of that for many years, right?
• 19:36
  Maybe I might have taken a different path if I hadn't seen
• 19:39
  more females in ministry, you know, except for the ones you
• 19:42
  saw on TV, like, you know, Joyce Meyers or somebody like that.
• 19:45
  But I didn't necessarily relate to a Joyce Meyers either.
• 19:49
  So when it comes to scriptures, I'm looking at where I see women
• 19:53
  active, where I see women moving in scripture.
• 19:56
  And you know, I had a great time preaching and he's pressing
• 19:58
  because I know there were some folk there that don't believe
• 20:00
  women should be enrolled. I said, what is it?
• 20:02
  You know, isn't it fascinating? I said, we're at the tomb that
• 20:06
  the women were there and what did Jesus tell?
• 20:09
  Go tell the disciples the good news.
• 20:11
  I said, can somebody tell me what the good news?
• 20:14
  The good news is the gospel of Jesus Christ, that Jesus is
• 20:16
  risen so that we might have life.
• 20:19
  I said he entrusted the women with the good news.
• 20:21
  So, you know, I believe that I'm a woman who has a voice, who has
• 20:25
  gifts, talents and abilities. And I believe that I should be
• 20:28
  able to exercise all of those. But hey, I'm not what you call
• 20:33
  feminists. I believe God has gifted both
• 20:36
  men and women. But for me, I like to be treated
• 20:40
  like a lady. And I don't, I don't necessarily
• 20:43
  ascribe to this strong feminist movement.
• 20:47
  I remember being on the Metro transit when I was travelling
• 20:49
  back and forth to work. And you know, a gentleman
• 20:51
  extended the lady to have a seat and she's like got 2 legs.
• 20:55
  I can stand for myself. Thank you very much.
• 20:57
  And I was like, well, she wants to stand.
• 20:59
  Go here. Thank you very much, Sir.
• 21:00
  I would like to sit down and thank you for being so kind and
• 21:03
  so sweet. I appreciate it.
• 21:05
  So my husband is God loving me. Like I just thank God for my
• 21:10
  husband. I tell folks when I went into
• 21:13
  ministry, I didn't go in it alone.
• 21:14
  I had his support 100%. And he said I could see God's
• 21:19
  call in your life and I'm with you.
• 21:21
  I mean, when I told him your kids will how much it's going to
• 21:23
  cost for me to go to school, he goes, we'll work it out, we'll
• 21:26
  make it work, right? So he was with me and when I'm
• 21:29
  out of balance, he tells me there's been seasons I've been
• 21:32
  completely out of balance. OK, You have to give family
• 21:35
  permission to tell you when you're out of balance.
• 21:38
  And so I'm really strategic about, for example, you know,
• 21:41
  just just the other day I said to him, you know, I was invited
• 21:44
  to speak at a couple other churches and I had to say no
• 21:48
  reluctantly. I would love to be able to do,
• 21:50
  but I can feel it in my physical body when I'm out about.
• 21:53
  And so I treat myself. You know, I went to Portugal
• 21:55
  this year. I think you need to be kind to
• 21:57
  yourself because the bottom line is if you get into it and you
• 21:59
  need to understand that you minister to your church family,
• 22:02
  but you have your core family who's your priority, right?
• 22:06
  Like, so don't sacrifice your core.
• 22:09
  And the other thing I've learned, tell a little bit of
• 22:11
  your story because there are so many people who are struggling.
• 22:13
  Like one of the things that we've done in the Pope is we've
• 22:16
  set ourselves up to be so holy that we're not even relatable.
• 22:20
  I tell my story, you know? You know, listen, I was a woman
• 22:24
  who was in the place who want to give up on life and commit
• 22:27
  suicide, but I'm so glad God kept me.
• 22:31
  You know, I don't tell all the things that led up to that.
• 22:34
  But then someone is someone else is struggling with that to say.
• 22:38
  And if my pastor was in that place and look at her, look what
• 22:40
  God did. Well, he can do for her.
• 22:42
  He can do for me. People say, well, pastor, we
• 22:44
  love your transparency and you give us hope.
• 22:47
  When you preach, you give us hope.
• 22:49
  Isn't that what people want today?
• 22:51
  We want hope. Thank you to Andrea for sharing
• 22:55
  your story with us. If you've been enjoying these
• 22:58
  episodes, please spread the word with others.
• 23:00
  You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram and keep up to
• 23:03
  date with our latest news and upcoming book release at Called
• 23:06
  to Serve dot. CA.